


12th Day of Winter - The Important Things

by unjaundiced



Series: Winter Spirits [14]
Category: Naruto
Genre: 25 Days of Christmas, 25 Days of Fic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Drama, Gen, Hurt, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-12
Updated: 2015-12-12
Packaged: 2018-05-06 01:02:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5397032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unjaundiced/pseuds/unjaundiced
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The best things in life are free and there are some things that are worth everything. In life there are things that happen that are not quantifiable, but we do the best we can when they happen and those things teach us: There are some things of immeasurable value; things we can never replace. Those things give our existence meaning.<br/>The kids are 10 and 11 years of age, Minato and Kushina are 19. Set the year after <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/5396858">Chaotic Caroling</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Best Things in Life

Iruka wanted to wait for Kakashi but Kotetsu and Izumo had teamed up in a concerted effort to get the pony-tailed boy to sneak away from school with them. Iruka, jittery with cabin fever and already anxious to be free to shiver in the outdoors, didn't take much convincing and willingly did his part to create a distraction.  
  
They made their move close enough to the end of the day that they wouldn't immediately be missed, but that they'd still have time to make an early getaway worthwhile. Squirrels Ichi, Ni, Shi, and Roku were worthy soldiers and performed their duties with honor and much climbing-on-of-heads.  
  
With Konoha Gakuen in an uproar and all classes recruited to the impromptu mission of “Find Squirrels San and Go”, no one missed the trio of pranksters as they scrambled over the fence surrounding the football field, slid down the embankment towards the partially-frozen river and hit the treeline. In fact, they wouldn't be reported missing at all.  
  
“Too bad Kakashi couldn't join us,” Iruka sighed glumly as he hitched himself up on a thick log and slid to the far side before jumping off.  
  
“That's all you ever think about,” Kotetsu grumbled in, carefully pushing a spindly branch away from his face. “He's so boring.”  
  
“Why don't you ever -kun him either? Are you guys that much of friends?” Izumo chimed in, his sentence-building skills still a little lacking.  
  
“Izumo-kun, sometimes I don't understand you,” Iruka said, wading knee-deep in a pile of deadfall, jumping as something chittered from under the leaves.

“There shouldn't be so many formalities between friends,” he continued, kicking at whatever was making the noise.  
  
“You sound like Gai-kun,” Kotetsu complained. “And you kunned Izumo-kun.”  
  
“Yeah, but I haven't known Izumo-kun as long as Kakashi.” Iruka mumbled as he poked at a cloud of mushrooms protruding from a log.  
  
“Don't play with those, they're poisonous,” His spikey-haired friend commented offhand, edging back towards the river.  
  
“And don't compare me to Gai-kun,” Iruka added as a belated afterthought, backing away from the poisonous fungi. “No one can ever be like him.”  
  
“Hey, isn't your house around here?” Izumo piped up suddenly, skidding on a patch of mud and toppling off the short bank to land in a pile of leaves. He popped up a moment later, debris tangled in his hair and looking like some kind of forest sprite.  
  
“It is,” Iruka hummed thoughtfully. “I didn't know we came so far from the school already.”  
  
He grinned in a devilish manner and leaned in conspiratorially. The other two scrambled towards the huddle eagerly.  
  
“You guys want to see something really cool?” Iruka teased, already backing away. Their eyes lit up and they nodded, slowly following him. “ It's across the river, but there's something cool me and Kakashi found a few days ago. He said not to go back 'cause it's dangerous, but he's just scared of getting caught,” he continued, hopping on a river stone. Izumo suddenly looked wary.  
  
“We have to cross the river?” he asked, poking at the ice with a stick. A soft sound purred up through the layers telling of slowly flowing water.  
  
“It's thick enough,” Iruka assured. “And this is the widest deepest part for ages so the water won't melt the ice too quickly. Kakashi said so.”  
  
“Well if _Kakashi_ said so,” Kotetsu smirked, already jumping on the ice and skidding on its slick surface.  
  
“Hey!” Iruka protested, sliding into him.  
  
“Guys, I'm gonna—” Izumo toppled them both.  
  
It was an adrenaline-filled few minutes as the trio of miscreants skidded and crawled their way across the ice sheet, hoping they wouldn't be spotted. They weren't supposed to be away from school, much less play on or around the river in wintertime.  
  
Scrambling up the embankment on the opposite side seemed to take ages. Kotetsu wasn't as strong as he liked to pretend he was and was pale and gasping by the time his friends hauled him over the side and into the safety of the trees. They sat in the deadfall for a moment, still breathing hard, before bursting into nervous giggles.  
  
“Okay, come look at this,” Iruka urged, dusting the leaves off his pants and tiptoeing towards a log buried in the shadow of shrubs.  
  
“I'm scared,” Izumo mumbled, clutching Kotetsu's jacket as his friend moved inexorably towards the gaping maw of darkness.  
  
“It's just a bunch of dead wood,” Kotetsu soothed, yanking at his arm.  
  
Something moved in the bushes. A shadow.  
  
Izumo and Kotetsu froze.  
  
Suddenly there were shiny things flashing in the dim light and the boys uttered shrill screams, falling over themselves backing away, Izumo sobbing that a kappa was going to kill them.  
  
“What are you doing,” Iruka cut through their hysterics flatly, crouching by the bush where a den of fox pups tumbled free of its protection.  
  
“I, uh...” Kotetsu stared at the blonde-and-orange little furballs.  
  
“No-nothing,” Izumo mumbled, still shaking.  
  
“Since when do you have foxes?” Kotetsu accused, shaking off his scare and pointing.  
  
“I think they're orphans,” Iruka said, lifting one up. “I haven't seen their mom yet and they were pretty skinny until Kakashi started feeding them.”  
  
“Kakashi again,” Kotetsu muttered looking disgusted. “It's like he's the Emperor or something.”  
  
“Hey! It's not like that!” Iruka protested. “He knows about animals! He helps raise therapy dogs, you know.”  
  
“Yeah, I _know ,_ ” Kotetsu groused. “I got mine from Hatake-sensei.”  
  
“But Iruka-kun,” Izumo whispered, carefully scooping up a thin pup. “How will you be able to take care of them without anyone finding out?”  
  
“Kakashi will find a way,” Iruka said with determination. “If anyone knows how, it will be him.”  
  
He stroked the fluffy head of the smallest blue-eyed pup and frowned.  
  
“He has to.”


	2. Worth Dying For

Kakashi kicked a rock, frowning when it didn't quite crest the hill by the football field. School had been in an uproar since someone had loosed squirrels with “Hi, my name is...” tags—liberated from an English teacher a week prior—on their backs labeled with number names. Gai and Anko had become obnoxious in their rabid hunt for numbers three and five, or San and Go (which they insisted was a secret code word for something). The only thing close to that that Kakashi could think of was Santiago, Chile; a place he hoped they would journey to and never return from.  
  
He sighed heavily and scuffed his foot in the grass, shaking it with a frown as the damp soaked through the canvas. He'd been treed for an hour when he'd gone after Gai who'd gotten stuck chasing what he thought was a squirrel and ended up in hysterics when he realized how high up he was. Because of the crazy boy, Kakashi hadn't been able to see where Iruka (obviously one of the perpetrators) had disappeared to.  
  
“Come on, Kakashi-kun. We'll walk you home,” Minato called, waving at him from the University's side gate. Kushina, bundled up in her ever-present orange puffy coat bounced on her toes and blew out a smoky breath.  
  
“Hurry before we all turn to ice,” she cried, jogging in place and yanking her double-pointed beanie lower on her head.  
  
Kakashi threw another glance toward the football field and sighed again, stuffing his hands into his pockets and slouching toward the waiting pair. He wore two satchels crossed over his chest; one a neat gray bag and the other a rat-bitten looking brown with a dolphin keychain hanging off it.  
  
“Kakashi-kun, is that Iruka-kun's bag?” Minato tilted his head curiously. The boy nodded glumly.  
  
“Well that explains the squirrels Inuzuka-sensei was telling us about,” Kushina muttered.  
  
“You're just jealous you didn't come up with that one,” Minato grinned, starting off down the street.  
  
“That's what you think,” she mumbled, jogging past when Minato stopped to wait.  
  
It quickly turned into a rather juvenile walk-race with both blond and redhead trying to outpace each other, a dour gray-headed boy trailing behind and lagging whenever they shouted at him to hurry. Kakashi paused as they were about to pass Iruka's house and the jockeying duo trundled their way back to him to inspect the building.  
  
“You think he's home?” Minato asked, looking at the dark house. “His parents are working right now so nobody else will be home.”  
  
Kakashi shrugged, staring pensively at the name plate marking it as the Umino residence. A silly little wreath hung over the sign, little dolphins and scarecrows dancing on it. He had not been pleased when Kohari-sensei had come up with that one.  
  
“Hey!” Minato sputtered as Kushina started to climb the wall. She stuck her tongue out at him and disappeared over the barrier. He looked at Kakashi who gave him a flat stare that practically screamed, _Well?_ He sighed and gave the boy a boost.  
  
By the time they climbed down the side of the wall, Kushina had already banged on the house door and given up on anyone being in residence. She left her bag on the entrance mat next to a small Christmas tree and headed toward the back yard with a backwards wave, practically skipping with nosy fervor.  
  
Kakashi hurriedly shrugged off his burden and handed the bags to Minato who held out his hands dumbly before rushing after his cousin. Minato shook his head and carefully lay the satchels under the tree with Kushina's bag before ambling after the wayward pair.  
  
  
Across the river one of the bolder fox pups had ventured too far from the den and had fallen through the leaf litter, sliding down the embankment onto the slick surface of the frozen river. He was trapped on a narrow shelf of black ice just below a particularly steep burn on a sharp bend.  
  
Iruka had scrambled down to get him, Izumo and Kotetsu dangling over the edge of the riverbank clinging to the remnants of an old fence as they helped him down. He had been crouching and sliding his way gingerly across the creaking ice towards the disoriented fox when a deafening crack made him freeze.  
  
The little fox made a shivering shaking turn and just as dark blue eyes met brown, the world opened up and Iruka's right leg plunged through the ice up to his thigh.  
  
He gasped as he fell, clawing at the ice as the current underneath sucked at him. Izumo and Kotetsu stifled shrieks, sliding down the slippery mud and tripping over rocks to reach him.  
  
The frantic pair was tottering on icy rocks and waving their hands at him when he managed to haul his leg out of the water and collapsed on his belly, attempting to slither towards the fox cub who was trembling and trying to make its way back. Iruka reached out and the ice started to disintegrate beneath him, his legs collapsing back through the widening hole as he scrambled to keep from being pulled under.  
  
Kotetsu spied a knot of discarded wire, sparsely decorated with the remnants of razor-edged barbs, and shouted at Izumo to help him as he dragged a loose end towards the river to use as a rope. The smaller boy climbed into the coil snarled on the riverbank and braced his feet on a rock as Kotetsu dove towards the ice, wire end clutched in his hand. The spiky-haired boy slid across the ice towards his imperiled friend, heart racing as the telltale sounds of ice dying echoed around him.  
  
It was this sight that Kushina came upon as she peeked over the fence ringing the back of the property. She cried out in a near-scream and frantically fought the sliding bolt that held the back gate closed, encroaching hysteria making her uncoordinated. She wrenched back the bolt with a sudden moment of dexterity and threw open the gate, running through the opening and slipping on the steep bank, falling sideways down the slope and sliding across the failing ice sheet.  
  
She didn't see the bevy of fox cubs sliding down the mud slide to crowd around Izumo or the way his wet shoes started to slip on the rocks and the shock on his face as he watched her fall. She could only see the little boy whose head and arms were the only things still above water as he gasped for air while serpents of dark water swam around his neck.  
  
Kotetsu's knee broke through the ice and he lunged for Iruka as he felt the rest of the distance between them break up. Izumo shouted as his feet slipped and he fell on the rocks and was dragged until he found purchase again, hauling back against the heavy wire with his whole weight. The fox pups milled about, leaning anxiously against his shins.  
  
“Iruka!” Kushina shrieked, as the boy clutched Kotetsu's arm and they both disappeared. She scrambled forward on her belly like a bloated seal, black ice turning white beneath her as it shattered.  
  
The wire bobbed and gnawed at the raw edge of melting ice, Kotetsu's gloved hand still clinging to its slick surface, a broken razored point digging into his palm and making his glove weep red.  
  
For a brief moment, the boys' heads appeared above water and they gasped, clinging to each other; clinging to the wire.  
  
Kakashi, emotionlessly blank in shock, stood on the riverbank watching events unfold like a slow motion film as Minato scrambled down behind him, shouting and shoving him further upstream to where the ice was more stable. Even making the mad awkward stumbling dash across the ice, he couldn't take his eyes off the scene as everything seemed to freeze.  
  
Izumo felt his shoes slip again and shouted as the tired wire shattered in the water and whipped back towards his face, falling backwards into a pile of rusty wire and furry bodies. Iruka and Kotetsu gasped as the loosed remnant careened towards them and they were dumped back under, each choking on water as they clawed for the surface against the raging current.  
  
Kushina abandoned all thought and flung herself through the gaping hole into the river itself, groping for their hands as they were all wrenched away under the impassive ceiling of ice.  
  
The fox pup who had started it all stared at the rapidly fragmenting ice beneath his feet and mewled pathetically.


	3. Are Survivable

One of the most terrifying and exhilarating moments of an EMT's life was when the lights started flashing and the trauma ward loudspeakers came to life broadcasting a request for a team of first responders. An even more terrifying moment was when the broadcast started to add details of the incident for the first responders semi-privately through personal communication sets as they piled into their ambulances, switch-shift nurses lugging hypothermia kits as they dove in through the closing doors. The horrifying part set in when the emergency details expanded to describe children as the victims—delivered by a flat impersonal voice of the hospital dispatcher—streamed throughout the rear cabin of the screaming vans as the medics clung to their seats with white-knuckled fingers, bracing their feet against the gurney as the ambulances took sharp turns and nearly sent them sliding.  
  
In more solemn moments, Ikkaku would wonder how the parents of some of the children he'd attended to had felt to see those red-and-white vans tearing down the street with sirens wailing like mourners; always wondered who they'd blamed for things gone wrong. He was always grateful that he worked at Konoha University Hospital which had a large adjunct trauma call center and that they never had to call around to see if any hospital would take their emergency.  
  
Kohari, having helped Nanori expand the paediatric and trauma networks within their hospital system, only liked to think of the parents' and relatives' relief as their child or loved one was wheeled through the emergency bay doors with a bevy of doctors in immediate attendance. Too many people died from delayed treatment because of denied entrance.  
  
Neither one could know how far their estimation of a parents' true feelings had been from the truth until the moment their ambulance pulled up on their street, screeching to a halt in their own driveway where the gates were flung wide open as if in surprise. A picture of quiet drama was painted in the milieu of the front steps, the front door to the house bashed open and swinging back and forth on ghostly breezes.  
  
A white-faced Kakashi was garishly illuminated by the ambulance's flashing lights, damp hair glistening red and gray as he shook in his blanket, crouched over a bundle on the ground and pressing a red-stained towel to something buried inside. Next to him, a blue-tinged Izumo slumped against the side of the house, loosely wrapped in a blanket and clutching a towel to his face as dark red sluggishly bled out around the corners, a bedraggled fox pup burrowed in his arms. Kushina, shivering badly and extremely pale, was gently cradling his head at an angle and whispering in his ear, shaking his arm every time he started to go limp.  
  
Minato, clutching a cordless house phone to his ear and speaking lowly to the dispatcher, was sitting on the lower steps clutching a limp bundle with yet another blood-soaked towel pressed to it, a wet tuft of brown trailing over his arm. He was also wet and shaking.  
  
“What's the situation!” Ikkaku barked, roughly pushing down his gut-wrenching panic as Kohari stumbled from the ambulance with a bitten-back gasp. He was the team leader and cool heads were a must among first responders. He had to treat this situation like he would if it involved complete strangers.  
  
Minato's head jerked up, eyes heavy-lidded and glassy; a bad sign of hypothermia. The boy clumsily tried to stand, looking surprised when his limbs failed him and the cordless phone fell from his limp fingers to clatter on the ground; a worse sign.  
  
As the medics swarmed the children, Ikkaku mentally rewrote his list of “worst case scenarios for an EMT” and placed “being the first responder for one of your own” at the top. When he saw the condition of the boys' faces and hands as they were strapped to gurneys, he would add “seeing the raw wounds” to that statement.  
  
  
Separating the children was surprisingly difficult. A shivering Kushina left first, still clutching Izumo and applying pressure to his face as an EMT helped lift the boy's lower half onto the gurney locked into the ambulance. Kotetsu was barely conscious and whimpered as his gurney bumped its way onto the second ambulance bed, flailing in delirious panic and calling for Iruka before a nurse secured his arm and hushed him. Kakashi suddenly grew clingy and morosely held onto Minato's shirt tail as the teen kept him from climbing aboard Iruka's ambulance, watching with despair as the doors closed on him.  
  
“I'll leave some team members to attend you both,” Michio offered gruffly as the twin wails of the first two ambulances started up. “There won't be room for everyone right now.”  
  
Minato nodded dumbly, startling as a small cold hand slid into his. He looked down at the gray-headed boy clinging to him.  
  
“My father will be home soon,” Kakashi said quietly. “He can take us.”  
  
Ikkaku nodded abruptly and climbed into the ambulance holding his son's body, casting his wife a brief glance. She was pale and carefully wetting the towel on Iruka's face so she could lift it and replace it with a clotting cloth. She was tapping a foot in a nervous staccato but her hands were steady; frail-looking but firm.  
  
He rocked back as the ambulance backed down the driveway, threw itself into a fast K-turn and shot down the street with a wail. He had never been so glad for the deafening cacophony of beeps and sirens and radio chatter as he was at that moment. He couldn't hear himself think; didn't want to think.  
  
The sound was so loud he almost didn't hear his son coming to as Kohari tucked the insulating blanket around his shoulders. Ikkaku thought he was hearing things until he crouched next to the gurney and almost had his face smashed into the steel sidebar as the van swerved.  
  
“-addy?” Iruka whispered, woozy from the sedative dripping into the IV now attached to his arm.  
  
“It's okay, Iruka-kun. We're going to the hospital,” Ikkaku said quietly, aching as he touched his son's hair.  
  
A sudden shout from the driver of “BRACE!” made him tense as one of the wheels, already spinning uselessly from the slippery road, hit a patch of ice and the ambulance skidded sharply to one side and kept skidding—right into oncoming traffic.  
  
When the truck plowed into the side of the ambulance, Kohari threw herself over the gurney as a pile of emergency kits broke free and rained upon her. Ikkaku struck his head against the diamond-plated steel grill that divided the drivers from the cargo bay and slumped, watching the world turn over itself from far away.  
  
His last thought before unconsciousness took him was that lists were a pretty poor way of classification. Any trip to the hospital was going to be a terrible way to end anyone's day.


	4. Worth More Than Gold

Iruka woke with a muzzy head, the ceiling overhead dotted with whimsical tiles depicting a train puffing its way in an eternal loop around the room. There was something stuck to his face and his body ached all over with a strange ghostly sensation he couldn't quite focus on. His mouth felt cottony, but he couldn't get up the energy to move. He felt at once heavy and light and it bothered him.  
  
He blinked a little at the softly glowing blue light attached to a box with jagged panels of lighted lines scrolling across its surface, bracketing by numbers—An EKG machine?  
  
A soft whisper of sound caught his attention but before he could focus on what it was, he felt himself slip back into oblivion.  
  
He fought briefly to the surface again when he heard the sound of a bed being rolled into the room, but he couldn't quite battle free of the cotton that padded his brain and he slipped away again. This happened several more times; soft cottony waves subsuming him and pulling him beneath the surface each time.  
  
When he finally came awake again, it was daytime. The sallow gray light filtered in through gauzy yellow curtains to turn the room a wash of cheery sunny tones. An empty bed was next to him; rumpled as if someone had slept in it and disappeared at dawn like a specter.  
  
In the room across the hall, the occupants of the two beds there were still fast asleep. Kotetsu lay sprawled across his covers, limbs thrown wide to the corners and his mouth open wide. A long bandage bisected his face, crossing the bridge of his nose. His hands were heavily bandaged like a boxer about to go five rounds in the ring. In the other bed, Izumo lay like a doll; heavily sedated with a thick padding taped over his right eye and hands bandaged like he'd be joining Kotetsu. An IV hung from an EEG machine at his side, steadily dosing him with narcotics.  
  
Kotetsu snorted and woke himself up, blinking and groaning in pain.  
  
"Ko-kun?” Iruka called out croakily, body still heavy and weak.  
  
"Iru-kun?” Kotetsu called back, sliding off his bed and almost kissing the floor as his knees went weak. His IV bag toppled off its stand and fell next to him.  
  
"Oh _honestly_ , you two,” cried a familiar voice from the hall. Kotetsu cringed as Yoshino's head popped around the corner and she glared.  
  
The nursing student was surprisingly gentle as she helped Kotetsu settle into a wheelchair, though she surprised him when she strapped his IV bag to his head with a stern “keep your head up” before wheeling him to Iruka's room. She showed Iruka how to adjust his bed so he could sit up without sliding down and warned them she'd return to separate them in fifteen minutes.  
  
Izumo finally came to a few hours later and though he wanted to, couldn't be moved. A Hyuuga from the ophthalmology department came to see him then and stayed with him for a long time before leaving without saying anything to Iruka or Kotetsu who tried in vain to listen at the door without success. The boy was almost crying when his friends piled weakly through the door to gawk at his bandages.  
  
Later, a mask-adorned Kushina came from her room down the hall to shoo Iruka back to his room, her chest rattling with a wet cough. It sounded like the dunk in the river had caused her pleurisy to flare. If it was pneumonia instead, she could be in for some serious trouble. Her immune system had never been all that strong.  
  
The boy cast her a worried glance as she tucked him back into bed, a funny elf hat stuck to the IV bag she had bound to her head. She winked at him at patted him on the head. He didn't think he was tired, but within minutes, he was dead to the world.  
  
  
It was dark the next time he awoke. The ceiling was splattered with multicolored stars dancing slowly across its surface. He could hear a soft mumble of voices outside his room and his head lolled tiredly to the side as he blinked at the little Christmas tree on a rotating stand next to him, a small pile of get-well-soon cards piled up beneath it.  
  
"Just go ahead if you want to,” a low voice murmured. Iruka perked up.  
  
"You don't have to, but—” it continued.  
  
"I want to,” a quiet voice cut the first one off.  
  
Iruka's eyelashes fluttered down as the door to his room slid open and a familiar spiky-haired silhouette walked in; Kakashi.  
  
The gray-haired boy hopped on the empty bed next to Iruka's, cradling something in his arms. He kicked his feet for a bit and stared at the ground.  
  
“Hey, Iruka,” he mumbled. Iruka tried to control his breathing, to pretend he was still asleep.  
  
"I know you're not sleeping,” the boy continued. “I'm sorry you got hurt. But Minato-nii said that your stitches will heal without too much scarring and that you and Kotetsu-kun are lucky that you didn't lose your eyes.”  
  
Kakashi paused and kicked aimlessly again.  
  
"Hyuuga-sensei—one of them anyway—said that Izumo-kun won't lose his eye and that he should be able to see again with some surgeries, so don't worry so much,” he said quietly.  
  
Iruka curled into his pillow, fists tight.  
  
"And the foxes you liked so much, Inuzuka-sensei said she'll take care of them until you come out of hospital so just think about getting better, okay,” Kakashi mumbled.  
  
He took a deep breath.  
  
"About your parents—”  
  
"Don't talk about it!” Iruka shouted, bolting upright, eyes bright. “I know everything was my fault!”  
  
"It was an _accident,_ ” Kakashi protested, not meeting the boy's eyes.  
  
"None of this would have happened if me 'n Izumo-kun 'n Ko-kun had just stayed in school like we were supposed to. It's my fault,” Iruka sobbed, pulling the sheets over his head.  
  
The corner of his bed dipped as Kakashi climbed up and Iruka shifted away, not wanting him near. Part of him ached to be hugged, but Kakashi didn't do hugs and nobody would want to touch him anyhow; not after what he had done.  
  
Kakashi sighed and was quiet for a long time while Iruka huddled in the corner of the bed. After long moments, the sheet slid down and frustrated red-rimmed eyes peeked out to glare at him.  
  
_"Well?”_ Iruka demanded, waiting for Kakashi to just go away and abandon him like he deserved.  
  
Kakashi shrugged.  
  
"It's not your fault,” he repeated prosaically. “And nobody blames you. You may not remember it, but you've been here for a week already and everyone's been to see you.”  
  
Iruka blinked.  
  
"School's already gone on break,” Kakashi went on, fiddling with whatever was in his hands. “And Christmas is almost here.”  
  
Iruka's face fell at the mention of Christmas; at the thought of his parents and how terrible things were going to be.  
  
"We'll have the foxes at my house by then,” Kakashi said haltingly. “Inuzuka-sensei will bring them over soon.”  
  
"And my parents said you can spend Christmas with us.” He paused. “That is, if you want to.”  
  
"I don't—” Iruka stuttered through a choked breath.  
  
"Maybe Santa will even come,” Kakashi added grudgingly. “If you still even believe in that faker.”  
  
Iruka didn't say anything and instead, twisted the sheets between his fingers and nibbled worryingly at his lip.  
  
"Here, take this,” Kakashi muttered awkwardly, shoving the thing he'd been fiddling with into Iruka's lap before hopping off the bed.  
  
"It'll make you feel better,” he promised, shuffling awkwardly out the door.  
  
Iruka dumbly felt the object in his hands and pressed a switch on the flat part. Kakashi's precious light-up model, The Brain—the one he'd had since he was four years old—glowed in the gloom. A post-it note was stuck to the frontal lobe and Iruka squinted to read it, smiling weakly at the childish scrawl.  
  
_Happy early Christmas, Iruka._  
_From, Santa's Helper_

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted on Livejournal in 2011 as part of the annual 12 or 25 Days of Christmas challenge. The story takes place by years and utilises Japanese honourifics as a necessity. I tried to use canonical names wherever possible and created original character names as needed.
> 
> Due to the conditions at the time, the writing is a bit clunky but will largely remain unedited.
> 
>  **Vocab Notes**  
>  Ichi, Ni, Shi, and Roku are the numbers 1, 2, 4, and 6. Of course this is the old “let loose animals with consecutive (minus a few) numbers and watch everyone look for the missing ones” trick. It usually will work. But don't tell anyone I said that. Also... The squirrel names were written with katakana and so could also be interpreted as other things besides numbers. (i.e. Ichi = Itchy, Ni=Knee or as a particle, Shi=Death or the onomatopoeia to refer to weeing [shi-shi], and Roku=Rock) because I do stuff like that.
> 
> San and Go in Japanese would generally be “San to Go” which sounds a lot like Santiago. Don't shoot me.
> 
> Kappa – basically a water spirit with the shell of a turtle (and some say seaweedy hair and a bald head) that really likes cucumbers. And to abduct and/or kill children, dogs and other small animals that stray too close to freshwater sources. And sometimes horses and cows. They need to keep water in the indentation in their head and you can escape from them or defeat them if you bow because they're very polite (when not attempting to devour you or your cucumbers and livestock) and will bow back, thus spilling the source of their power on the ground and weakening them.
> 
> In Japan (and Korea), it might be faster to call a taxi or a friend to drive you to hospital than to call an ambulance because they're required to admit you to emergency if you show up on your own. If you travel by ambulance, the ambulance automatically takes you to the nearest hospital and must call ahead to see if they have room and will take you. 75-90% of the time, the hospital won't take the ambulance and they have to try again at another hospital until they either gain acceptance or the patient expires or recovers on his/her own. The record is 49 hospital rejections for one person during one ambulance trip.
> 
> IV bags on the head – yes you can do this and yes there are some hospitals in Asia that will do this instead of using an IV stand because ~~they're cheap~~ it's easier for mobility purposes


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